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Watandost in Urdu, Turkish and Farsi means "friend of the nation or country". The blog contains news and views about Pakistan and broader South West Asia that are insightful but are often not part of the headlines. It also covers major debates in Muslim societies across the world.

It is generally believed in the West that military action can resolve the terrorism problem in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region as well as help efforts to thwart violent radicalism throughout the region. This idea, while sounding sensible when peering at Pakistan from the outside, misses an important reality on the ground: according to a new report released today by the Asia Society, it is the domestic police force that can best root out terror networks, find and disable their financial support, and even manage de-radicalization programs in association with local communities.
When faced with a serious internal security crisis, it is crucial that a state pursue reform that entails capacity …

Launch Event at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DCJuly 25, 2012 - 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
(organized in association with the Middle East Institute)
Register at: http://asiasociety.org/calendars/police-reform-pakistan
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Experts from both Pakistan and the United States have collaborated to provide a framework for law enforcement reform in Pakistan. The culminating report by the Independent Commission on Pakistan Police
Reform is the result of extensive interviews conducted throughout Pakistan with experienced police officials, security analysts, and legal experts, in addition to articles contributed by experts in the field. Police reform efforts in India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka are also disc…

BAQI TANAH, AFGHANISTAN—The Pakistan border is a short walk through the desert from this village, and the rutted road that winds past it is a main thoroughfare for smugglers, Taliban insurgents and corrupt Afghan border police.

They all compete for the villagers’ loyalties, which shift as easily as the sand beneath their dusty feet, depending on who presents the biggest threat, or holds out the most alluring promises.
Canada hoped to win them over by building a new school just two years ago. Village elder Haji Abdul Raziq, an overbearing greybeard, named the school after himself.

He also took full credit for the gift from Canadians, at least until it quickly began to fall apart. Now, he tells his people that Canadians bungled the project because they didn’t give enough money.

The concrete walls are cracked and crumbling around the flimsy wooden door frames.

Lal Shahbaz Qalandar’s Urs ends amid a call for more research on his life The Express Tribune, July 12th, 2012.

HYDERABAD: After devotees whirled and prayed for three days at the shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in Sehwan, his Urs celebrations ended on Wednesday.
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The main events during the three-day Urs comprised Sugharan Ji Katchery (folklore discussion), an international literary conference, concerts, agro-industrial exhibition, malakhro (wrestling) and cattle shows. Literati
Scholars, historians and writers who gathered at the literary conference called for research on the life and intellectual works of Qalandar, whose real name was Syed Usman Marvandi. “There is confusion about the right date of birth, arrival in Sindh and the poetry and prose work contributed by Qalandar,” said Dr Nawaz Ali Shauq.
The event was organised by Sindh culture department at Shahbaz Hall in Sehwan on Tuesday night. Dr Shauq argued that Qalandar was a proponent of the Mansoori thought – a reference to t…

What if Bulleh Shah were alive today?By Raza Rumi, Express Tribune, July 12, 2012
The chilling news of a man burnt alive in Bahawalpur on alleged charges of blasphemy has escaped the national media as well as our collective conscience. Other than a token condemnation by PresidentAsif Ali Zardari, no major political leader has bothered to talk about this ghastly incident.
After the brutal assassination of Salmaan Taseer in January 2011, we had given up the hope of even holding a debate on man-made colonial laws on blasphemy. The voices that were asking for a review of the legislation had to retreat as the majority Sunni-Barelvi interpretation captured public discourse. Taseer’s killer, Mumtaz Qadri was defended by the same lawyer who viewed ‘rule of law’ as an articulation of a personalised, anti-democracy and Sharia-compliant version of justice. The fact that a former chief justice of Lahore is Qadri’s lawyer reflects the inherent biases and indoctrination that have spread in our soci…

Clinton’s ‘Sorry’ to Pakistan Ends Barrier to NATO
By ERIC SCHMITT, New York Times, July 3, 2012

WASHINGTON — Pakistan told the United States that it would reopen NATO's supply routes into neighboring Afghanistan after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she was sorry for the deaths of two dozen Pakistani soldiers in American airstrikes in November, officials from the two countries said Tuesday.

The agreement ended a bitter seven-month stalemate that threatened to jeopardize counterterrorism cooperation, complicated the American troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and cost the United States more than $1 billion in extra shipping fees as a result of having to use an alternative route through Central Asia.

Mrs. Clinton said that in a telephone call on Tuesday morning to Pakistan’s foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, they had agreed that both sides made mistakes that led to the fatal airstrikes.
“We are sorry for the losses suffered by the Pakistani military,…

Perversity characterizes Pakistan. Only the worst African hellholes, Afghanistan, Haiti, Yemen, and Iraq rank higher on this year's Failed States Index. The country is run by a military obsessed with -- and, for decades, invested in -- the conflict with India, and by a civilian elite that steals all it can and pays almost no taxes. But despite an overbearing military, tribes "defined by a near-universal male participation in organized violence," as the late European anthropologist Ernest Gellner put it, dominate massive swaths of territory. The absence of the state makes for 20-hour daily electricity blackouts and an almost nonexistent education system in many areas.

The root cause of these manifold failures, in many minds, is the very artificiality of Pakistan itself: a cartographic puzzle piece sandwi…